For Cybertron: Tools
by Mightily Mousey
Summary: What would you be willing to do for your world and it’s people? movieverse, "There Is" Series, prewar, Betaed by Okami Myrrhibis
1. Chapter 1: Zero

Title: For Cybertron: Tools

Chapter: Chapter One: Zero

Author: SBX

Series: The "There Is" Series

Characters: Zero (OC), the Allspark, Primus, Unicron

Pairings: none

Rating: G

Warnings: none

Disclaimer: No character used in this story belongs to me except for Zero.

Summary: What would you be willing to do for your world and its people?

A/N: Thus the beginning of a very complicated series of stories, starting before Cybertron even existed and ending long after the events of the movie. Get ready for more twists and turns than a roller coaster. :D

* * *

_If their value is "beyond all price," it follows that rational beings must be treated "always as an end and never as a means only." This means, on the most superficial level, that we have a strict duty of beneficence toward other persons: We must strive to promote their welfare: we must respect their rights, avoid harming them, and generally "endeavor, so far as we can, to further the ends of others."_

-_The Elements of Moral Philosophy_, Fifth Edition, James Rachels, pg. 132

ooooooooooooo

Their race started with the Allspark. It started with the creation of two nearly omnipotent beings by the Allspark: Unicron and Primus. Representatives of the two universal constants: chaos and order. Almost from the moment of their creation the two behemoths were in conflict with each other. Their battles spanned millennia with no chance of victory for either one, until the Allspark gave into the inevitable and dealt with them itself.

Both were sealed into the forms of planets, and while Unicron was sent to the other side of the universe, Primus was left in place orbiting a small star. On Primus the Allspark started again, creating a much smaller, more balanced entity that was given the task of looking over those that would come later. His function was to guide the self designated-Cybertronians to a peaceful existence by any means necessary. Without this he was nothing. He was Zero.

He watched. He listened. Very little about his people escaped his notice. Secrets never stayed a secret from him for long. This information gave him power, allowed him to gain a high position. All those that were of use to him were carefully protected. All those that stood in his way were dealt with swiftly. They were his tools.

Zero himself was a tool. He was the tool of the Allspark and of Cybertron. He existed solely to serve his Creator and the planet he called home. He would do anything for the Allspark. He would do anything…for Cybertron.


	2. Chapter 2: Maxium and Orion Pax

Title: For Cybertron: Tools

Chapter: Chapter Two: Maxium and Orion Pax

Author: SBX

Series: The "There Is" Series

Characters: Zero (OC), Elita-1, Maxium, Orion Pax, Mention of Sentinel Prime and Galvatron

Pairings: Maxium/Orion friendship (for now)

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Questionable consent? How do you categorize a forced spark bond?

Disclaimer: No character used in this story belongs to me except for Zero.

Summary: What would you be willing to do for your world and its people?

A/N: Prompt for this one is Megatron/Optimus Prime/Cybertron. See how complicated things are getting? For the record, the name Maxium is not canon. I made it up so I could have a name for Megatron before he was Megatron. Elita-1 is going to be one of those background characters that pulls all the strings, much like Zero. She'll show up again later. And no, she won't have any romantic involvement with Optimus. Ever. Because that would be like cradle robbing.

* * *

Zero heard the Allspark's silent cries of protest and he knew that the current regime was no longer worthy of leadership. Galvatron was becoming violent and maniacal. Sentinel Prime was becoming complacent, no longer fighting his co-ruler's war-like tendencies.

They were becoming a danger to Cybertron, and Zero could not allow that. It was time for a change.

ooooooooooooo

It was an accident. That's what the official reports said, anyway. Zero knew better. This whole thing was a controlled experiment. An attempt to create a pair of new rulers who would work in harmony with each other, who couldn't help but do so.

Though, when he thought about it later, spark bonding them before they were even activated was a bit extreme.

ooooooooooooo

Elita-1 was going fritzy. She wasn't experienced enough to deal with the duo terrors known as Maxium and Orion Pax. Never had she encountered two sparklings that caused more trouble.

It was partly the fault of the femmes that worked the center, though. They had made bad decisions concerning the two sparklings, and now they had lost whatever authority they possessed.

Elita-1 had found the fact that the two were spark bonded disturbing. They weren't old enough to understand what being spark bonded meant, no matter how intelligent they were. And they were very intelligent. Frighteningly so. Intelligent enough to speak complete sentences and complicated words. Intelligent enough to understand the concept of revenge.

Elita-1 had attempted to keep them separated. Spark bonds strengthened with proximity, so if she could keep some distance between them then the bond would weaken. First they had been kept in different parts of the main center. They always found their way back to each other. Then they were kept in complete different centers. Maxium, with some method known only to Primus, managed to return to his bonded.

The femmes would have found the strength of their bond admirable if it wasn't such a pain in the aft.

Punishments were futile and eventually backfired as the sparklings learned how to punish their caretakers in turn. It started out with small pranks that were nothing more than a nuisance, but with every separation attempt they became harsher, more humiliating, and eventually life threatening. Maxium and Orion were becoming forces to be reckoned with.

Elita-1 finally gave up and let them be. They settled down once they no longer felt threatened, and were able to develop more stable personalities. Maxium was adventurous, dominating, and charismatic. He could convince anybody to follow his way of thinking if given enough time. Orion was quiet, timid, and endearing when his mischievous streak wasn't showing.

While at first glance their bond seemed unequal at first, with the more aggressive Maxium controlling his meeker partner; it was, in point of fact, the most balanced spark bonding that Elita-1 had ever seen. Orion had his own way of controlling. He could have Maxium wrapped around his finger with a bat of his pretty blue optics. The larger sparking could not deny his bonded anything; both knew it, and neither cared.

Elita-1 sometimes wondered if this balance was what Zero wanted when he brought these two into existence, because she didn't believe for an astrosecond that the bonding was an accident.

A slow, creeping rumor had spread through the ranks of government officials. It suggested that Maxium and Orion were created to replace Lord High Protector Galvatron and Sentinel Prime as rulers of Cybertron. What the current rulers thought of this, or if they even knew about the rumors, was unknown.

'_If it's true,'_ Elita-1 mused, _'Then Primus help us all if those two come to power.'_


	3. Chapter 3: Ratchet and Ironhide

Title: For Cybertron: Tools

Chapter: Chapter Three: Ratchet and Ironhide

Author: SBX

Series: The "There Is" Series

Characters: Zero (OC), Glit, Ratchet, Ironhide, Maxium, Orion Pax, Sentinel Prime, Galvatron

Pairings: pre-Ironhide/Ratchet, Maxium/Orion friendship (for now)

Rating: PG-13

Warnings:

Disclaimer: No character used in this story belongs to me except for Zero.

Summary: What would you be willing to do for your world and its people?

A/N: With this chapter we have the introduction of Glit, who is not an OC. He's was a Decepticon medic from the Kiss Players continuity. A _nice_ one. Wild, huh? I was looking through Telatraan-1 looking for a medic that could act as Ratchet's mentor when I found him and he was perfect for my purposes. Also in this chapter is the establishment of Ratchet and Ironhide as parental figures for Maxium and Orion. This'll make things really fun later. :3

* * *

Zero was dissatisfied with the progress of the two younglings. Their development seemed to have leveled out under the care of the femmes at the center. They were no longer being challenged, so their minds were no longer growing at the exponential level from before.

Unfortunately, Zero had no idea of how to remedy the problem. He instead turned to Glit, Chief Medical Advisor to the rulers of Cybertron and co-conspirator, in hopes of the larger, gentler mech having an idea of what to do.

Glit found Zero's predicament extremely amusing, but then, he found most things so. "I thought you said you knew what you were doing," he teased. He was completely unfazed by the tiny mech's sullen glare.

Suddenly the medic turned deadly serious, leveling his companion with an intense stare that had put many of his apprentices in their places. Zero barely kept from squirming.

"I warned you before this started to be careful with those two, Zero," Glit stated, a calm tone covering an underlying threat, "I did not help you bring those two into this world only for you to ruin them."

Zero glared back, unable to hide his irritation as he said, "I have no intention of breaking them, Glit. I need help finding a way to help them progress further. They made so much progress in such a short time, and now they're…stagnating."

Glit eyed his smaller companion thoughtfully, and turned to his desk. "I think I may have a solution to your problem, as well as a solution to one I'm having myself," he stated as he input commands into a console, bringing up a file.

Zero approached the holo-screen, gazing at the familiar mech displayed. He looked at the medic in askance. "Your current apprentice? What does he have to do with the younglings?"

Glit had returned to his perpetually amused countenance. "I believe Orion Pax and Maxium would benefit from some one-on-one teaching. I also believe that Ratchet here," he pointed at the screen, "could do with more responsibility to get his processor off of…other things."

Zero ignored the vagueness of the last comment. If Glit didn't want to talk, he wouldn't. It wouldn't take much work to figure it out anyway, just a bit of investigation.

"You think he could handle them by himself? He's barely out of his youngling vorns himself, and very inexperienced. Reports from Elita-1 have told me that they have become a little wild with no one willing to oppose them on anything," he said, letting his skepticism color his tone. It still amazed him that such fierce femmes as those that worked in the centers would cower in the face of two younglings.

Glit chuckled as he sat down. "Ratchet has a temper I'd like to mention. Worse than old Ironhide's if that's possible. Believe me when I say he'll have those two whipped into shape in no time," he replied, a certain amount of smugness in his voice.

"Just so long as he doesn't have them whipped completely," Zero countered, "They are no use to us if they don't have the strength to do what's expected of them."

Glit didn't say anything to that. He just smiled and went back to what he had been working on before his smaller companion had so rudely interrupted with his demands.

ooooooooooooo

Ratchet stared at the two younglings being put in his care. They, in turn, stared back. Elita-1 was unsubtly snickering at his discomfort in the background while Glit waited for the inevitable explosion with amused anticipation. He wasn't disappointed.

"No. No! Absolutely not! You can not put me in charge of these two juvenile delinquents," the apprentice medic railed as he turned on his mentor.

Glit was unimpressed be his ire. "I see you've read their file," the chief medic commented lightly. Ratchet glared at him in outrage.

"Of course I read their file! And let me tell you, I didn't like what I found out," he snapped, gesturing wildly at the two younglings who were regarding them with growing resentment. They hadn't appreciated the 'juvenile delinquent' comment.

Ratchet wasn't finished by a long shot. "As incompetent as Elita-1 is at times and how stupid her mistakes were in regard to their unique circumstance," he trudged on through his rant, ignoring Elita-1's indignant protest and the younglings' giggles at her misfortune, "Their reactions are still extreme and borderline sociopathic. And they'll only get worse as they get older!"

Here Maxium and Orion grew quiet. Sociopaths were bad mechs. They didn't want to be bad.

Ratchet caught the worried looks on the youngling's faces and visibly wilted. He shot Glit a tired look as he finished softly, "If you're looking for someone to rehabilitate these two, look elsewhere. I don't exactly have the greatest history of mental stability myself."

Glit met his apprentice's optics at that, his expression turning gentle. "That's exactly why I'm asking you to do this. You three'll be good for each other, you'll see. Trust me," he murmured. Ratchet gazed back, searching for the answer to a question he wasn't even sure of.

Finally, he sighed. "Alright," he conceded, "I'll trust your judgment." Maxium and Orion actually looked hopeful upon hearing this. Nobody could be worse than Elita-1.

ooooooooooooo

The first dozen orns were mostly uneventful. Maxium and Orion were willing to give Ratchet the benefit of the doubt due to the fact that he disliked Elita-1 as much as they did. The one incident of misbehavior involved a refusal to recharge. In retribution the apprentice medic kept them up for three orns before they surrendered, exhaustion curbing their rebelliousness. They behaved themselves perfectly after that.

In return for their good behavior Ratchet taught them what ever he knew that was appropriate for their age. He taught them some basic elements of his own profession. He taught them about Cybertron, its rules, its history, and its present. He taught them complicated calculations that the average mech couldn't comprehend, but the two younglings were able to master almost effortlessly. He gave them problems to solve, a way to take all the knowledge they had gained and use it.

All of this Maxium and Orion absorbed into their processors, astounding and delighting their new caretaker and he finally came to understand why the femmes had so much trouble with them. The femmes had been holding the younglings back, forcing them into a general mold of where they should be in their development, instead of where their own individual growth was taking them.

Once he knew where the problem lay Ratchet was able to deal with the younglings properly, and a genuine affection seemed to develop for both parties. While the caretaker almost welcomed this, his charges were more cautious. They only had each other for as long as they could remember and caring for another confused them. It forced them out of their self-revolving mindset, and that took time. That was fine with Ratchet. He could be very patient when he wanted to and the reward was worth his while.

Everything was going swimmingly. Which, when Ratchet thought about it later, should have been his first warning that things were about to go straight to the Pit.

ooooooooooooo

Glit knew he probably shouldn't have introduced the younglings to Lord Galvatron and Sentinel Prime. He did it anyway, regardless of Zero's orders not to. Maybe even because of them.

They hadn't really reacted to Sentinel at all. In fact, they had ignored him completely unless he tried to speak to them. Galvatron however…

Galvatron could send Orion into fits of panic by merely walking into the room, the youngling hiding in the smallest space he could fit into; usually under Ratchet's desk. Maxium in contrast went on the offensive, bristling in a manner reminiscent of organic beasts that sense a potential threat. He never attacked Galvatron outright, but their guardian sensed it was only a matter of time.

And it was. He didn't attack openly or violently, but subtly. Ratchet got a good look at what the femmes at the center had to deal with when they were still sparklings.

The pranks weren't small, but not life threatening either. They were designed by Maxium to warn the High Lord Protector that he was not welcome anywhere near the two younglings.

Galvatron seemed to take the hostility in his stride, as much as he did for anything. But he could only be pushed so far, and he wasn't a particularly patient individual to begin with.

Thus Ratchet found himself standing between the violent ruler and the younglings in his care as they cowered behind him. The young medic stood face to face with what Maxium and Orion had seen in this mech from the start. A monster with a fraying leash.

Ratchet didn't have time to contemplate how it was possible for two younglings to sense the evil in this individual. Galvatron was attempting to choke the life out of him, making any thought deeper than "ohPrimusI'mgoingtodie" impossible.

The room was in chaos. Technicians ran from the room, not wanting to get hit by the backlash of their Lord's temper. Sentinel and Glit had a hold of Galvatron's arms, trying to pry the larger mech away from the apprentice medic. Glit shouted as loud as his vocalizer would allow, anger and panic twisting his normally amiable features.

Even over the commotion of Glit's shouts and Galvatron's deep, menacing growls Orion's quiet, terrified whimpers could be heard. It was this sound that overrode Ratchet's own fear and made him lash out at the more powerful mech in retaliation. This monster wasn't laying a single finger on _his_ younglings.

Through all of this, Zero watched from the sidelines with the air of a disinterested bystander. Secretly, he was impressed with the young medic's gall. Not many had the nuts and bolts to take on an enraged Galvatron.

A movement at the doorway caught the tiny mech's attention. While he gave no outward acknowledgment, on the inside Zero grinned. Just he mech he wanted to see. Things were about to get a little more interesting.

The whine of two large cannons charging up, while not loud, carried through the room, creeping into the most primitive parts of the processors of those present, triggering the self-preservation instincts and making everyone freeze. No one wanted to do anything to draw the fire of the bulky mech watching them all calmly from the door.

Galvatron was especially weary as the cannons were leveled at him.

"Ironhide," he nodded at the newcomer in greeting, trying to sound pleasant. Ironhide wasn't having any of it.

"Galvatron, put the little medic down," the heavily armed mech ordered, not in the mode to indulge the High Lord Protector's little games.

Galvatron glanced at the medic in question, looking for all the world like he had forgotten he existed at all. Ratchet would have been offended had he not already been about to fall into stasis lock. It didn't help matters at all when the psychopath unceremoniously dropped him to the ground in an ungraceful heap

Orion gave a distressed cry, breaking away from Maxium's protective hold to make sure their guardian was still alive. "Ratchet," the youngling whimpered, "Ratchet, are you okay?"

Ratchet brought up a shaky hand to stroke the youngling's head reassuringly. Maxium edged closer, alternating between look at both of them worriedly and glaring at Galvatron with the beginnings of real hatred. He wasn't ever going to forget this.

Glit released his grip on the mad-mech and was already running scans and diagnostics before he even knelt down at his apprentice's side. All the while he grumbled about the stupidity of the whole situation. "I'm surrounded by the most stubborn, foul-tempered individuals in the universe, I swear to Primus," he growled, his harsh words a direct contradiction to the way he gently moved the younglings asise so he could have better access to Ratchet.

Galvatron and Sentinel both ignored them, focusing all their attention on the new arrival who was speaking again. "I'm gone on assignment for a meta-cycle and things go straight to the Pit around here," Ironhide rumbled, lowering his cannons, but not putting them into standby quite yet. He's known Galvatron too long to let down his guard until he was certain he had regained whatever amounted to sanity for him.

Sentinel gave them both a tired, long suffering look. With Ironhide back, the incidents of property damage would significantly rise, not to mention the number of times both volatile mechs paid Glit's infirmary a visit. He really didn't have time for this.

Without a single word to anyone he left the room, leaving his partner to stare after him in annoyance. Galvatron did not like to be disregarded by anyone. Likewise he left the room to chase down his co-ruler, ignoring Ironhide's mocking bow.

Glit looked up and caught Ironhide's optics, waving the bulkier mech closer. "Don't just stand there looking pretty, you brute. Help me get him to a berth," he snapped. Zero put a hand over his face, forcing himself not to laugh or even smile. The CMO certainly had a way with words.

Ironhide narrowed his optics, but did as he was told. Sometimes it just didn't pay to argue. He approached the group of mechs on the ground, studying the causes of the commotion critically.

The two younglings were watching him with awe in their optics and the beginnings of hero worship, and he wondered how long it would take to break them of that when they got older. _'So these are the two Zero wants me to train up,'_ he mused, _'Well if they're as quick on the uptake as their files say, then this should be interesting.'_

The little medic would be even more so if the glare he shot Ironhide when he tried to pick him up and carry him was any indication. He settled for throwing the smaller mech's arm over his shoulders and pulling him to his feet with more force than he meant.

As the shock of going from a barely sitting position to standing finally sent the battered apprentice into stasis lock, Glit rolled his optics. "Primus below, you have all the care of a waste compactor."

Ironhide ignored his long time friend's snark as he took advantage of the unconscious state of his burden and swung Ratchet up into his arms easily. With considerable more gentleness he set the young medic on a berth and took the opportunity to take a good look at him.

The young medic was built sturdy, obviously designed to take a fair amount of damage and would probably make a decent field medic if a war of some sort were to break out. He was also handsome in a way now that he was peaceful and not trying to take anyone's head off. Ironhide found himself running a finger down that face, attempting to memorize it. He probably wouldn't see it this calm again for a long while, if ever.

Ironhide's attentions didn't go unnoticed by those around him. Maxium and Orion exchange knowing looks, the beginnings of an idea forming in their young processors. Glit found the attention being paid to his apprentice disquieting and made a mental note to take his friend aside later and tell him as nicely as possible to _back off_.

Zero watched it all and felt just a little bit smug. He had been counting on this. The more affection the old soldier developed for the young medic now, the less likely the chance of him killing the boy when Ratchet's temper and protective instincts pitted them against each other later.

When Maxium and Orion become older Ironhide would be responsible for their combat training while Ratchet remained their primary caretaker and general educator. They would together be preparing the younglings for their future rolls as leaders of Cybertron. _'Primus, bring them luck,'_ Zero thought to himself as he saw the mischief brewing in the younglings' optics, _'They're going to need it.'_


End file.
